Fertilizer Plant Leak in Bangladesh Sickens Dozens
Source dpa, Hamburg, Germany (TNS)
Dhaka -- More than 50 people have fallen sick in southern Bangladesh after inhaling toxic gas which leaked from a chemical fertilizer factory, officials said on Tuesday.
"We have taken 50 people to hospital as they had been suffering from serious breathing problems," firefighter Jasim Uddin, who led the rescue operation, told reporters at the scene in the district of Chittagong.
The firefighters needed six hours to bring the situation under control after the gas began seeping late on Monday night at the state-run Diammonium Phosphate Fertilizer Factory in Anwara, 230 kilometers south-east of the capital Dhaka.
The head of the district's administration, Mesbah Uddin, said concentrated ammonium gas had spread over a one-kilometre radius from the factory after one of the factory's 500-tonne capacity tanks was damaged.
Residents in nearby areas were evacuated soon after the accident but began returning after the leak was contained, according to Saleh Noman, a local resident.
A panel of officials is investigating the cause of the leak and is due to report back in a week.
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